The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has stated that the organization does not believe there is a fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
Following President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration announcement that “subsidy is gone,” fuel prices have risen, leading to shortages across the country.
While the government had previously stated its inability to sustain subsidy payments, Professor Osodeke, speaking at the Alex Ekweme Federal University in Ebonyi State, expressed bewilderment over Nigeria’s ability to export crude oil but its failure to refine it domestically.
“We don’t believe in the existence of fuel subsidy. How can we continue to export crude oil for 70 years without being able to refine it and provide it to our citizens at the Nigerian rate, not in dollars? Something is amiss,” he remarked during a lecture titled ‘Advancing Technology through Quality Education, the ASUU Perspective.’
Furthermore, Osodeke criticized the country’s lack of a functional refinery and expressed concern over the exorbitant amount of money spent on renovating existing ones.
“Building a refinery is not a complex task. However, Nigeria deliberately neglects the maintenance of its refineries while continuing to pay salaries to those working there,” the ASUU president lamented.
“Over the past few years, Nigeria has spent trillions of naira on refinery renovations, yet none of them are operational. Meanwhile, smaller nations have successfully established functional refineries.”